Program Directors

Brittany Prohaska is the Director of Community Services and Process Administration. She graduated ASU in 2011 with a Bachelor of Science in Family and Human Development. Brittany originally began her journey as a community provider soon after she graduated, and was shortly brought to the center to work in the Kinder-Prep Program. In 2012, the Kinder-Prep program transitioned into a Peer Development Program (PDP) and in October of 2012, Brittany became program lead; focusing on clinic habilitation in a group setting.

During Brittany’s time in the PDP classroom, she found her passion working with differently-abled individuals. As a step further, in early 2013, Brittany took this love and started focusing on helping the families within the Community. With dedication and continued devotion, Brittany became the Director of Community Services and Process Administration.

Brittany continues to enjoy working in all aspects with differently-abled individuals; including helping support families with questions and or concerns as well as supporting the center operationally. She continues to help families with successful programming and provider support for the community, which is continuing to grow with amazing potential and inspiration.

When Brittany has free-time, she enjoys spending time with her family.

Jamie Noe started to peruse teaching nearly 6 years ago. She grew up in Montana where she had the opportunity to jump start her teaching career from a multi grade combination classroom to one-on-one special needs classroom. Newly married, looking for more opportunity and a change, mostly in weather, Ms. Jamie and her husband Jeff moved to Arizona late 2011.

While in Montana, Jamie attended Montana State University – Bozeman where she earned Her bachelor’s degree in business management a minored in entrepreneurship. After entering into the work force she decided to go back to school to persue her master’s degree and teaching certificate in elementary education from Montana State University – Billings. Upon completing her degree and student teaching, Ms. Jamie immediately began to work with kiddos with special needs. She taught in both special education and regular education in Montana.

Ms. Jamie joined a great team in December 2011 and started her new adventure at Lauren’s Institute for Education, LIFE. During her time at LIFE she has had the privilege to grow in her career and work with many different kiddos, different ages and different disabilities. While teaching a variety of kiddos, she supervises, teaches and trains a team of staff members to continue to move forward together. She works hard to individualize teaching and cater to each kiddos different learning styles and academic abilities to ensure goals are met. As she continues to see LIFE expand she is able to grow her professional career at the same time. Ms. Jamie has attended workshops and earned certificates in Brain Gym and Handwriting Without Tears. She completed applied behavior analysis training and is able to provide habilitation, social habilitation and respite to help kiddos and families meet their goals.

She has taught alongside and been mentored by masters in the education field. She looks forward to meeting your kiddo and continuing her journey with the wonderful LIFE team and community.

Lori Kleinman along with her husband are native to Arizona. She has been married for 24 years and they have three great children. Two of their three children are in college and their youngest is a Junior in high school. She has been very involved with her children by serving as PTO President at their elementary school for a few years along with being team mom for several sporting teams along with serving as the President of the booster club for her boy’s high school football team for several years. Family and church are the center of Lori’s daily life, hobbies and recreation.

Nearly 17 years ago Lori Kleinman began her journey working with children. For nearly 6 years she operated an in home pre-school while two of her own children were in this age group. When her youngest child reached 1st grade she then ended her in home service and went to work within the public school system working in the priority preschool for four years. At this time she was able to go back to school and attend Ottawa University and study Elementary Education. In 2008, she joined the team at Laurens Institute For Education in the Academy as a Lead Teacher. Lori has continued her education by attending workshops and trainings aligned with the programs and curriculum which Laurens Institute For Education – Academy has adopted. These have included: Saxon Math training, Reading Mastery training, Brain Gym certification, Handwriting Without Tears and Get Set For School certifications along with a variety of workshops geared towards all therapy disciplines.

Kathleen is a licensed Board Certified Behavior Analyst and has worked with individuals diagnosed with autism and other developmental disabilities for the past 17 years. Her career began as a music therapist where she created a successful private practice working alongside Arizona State University as a faculty associate to educate, supervise, and provide internships to students seeking degrees in the fields of music therapy and education.

In 2006 she was approached by the co-founders of Lauren’s Institute For Education to become a co-clinical director for their organization. When the doors opened in August of 2007 the journey began.

The unique perspective she has acquired in serving individuals with developmental disabilities has led to creating a collaborative approach with professionals such as medical providers, teachers, habilitators, physical, music, occupational, and speech therapists.

After a short leave from LIFE to teach as a faculty associate for ASU at the Mary Lou Fulton Teacher’s college she was welcomed back to develop the Behavior Programming and Support department. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Therapy and a Master’s Degree in Special Education- Autism Emphasis from Arizona State University.

Kathleen has been happily married for 22 years and has two very talented teenagers. She loves music, children, and animals. Her hope for the Behavior Programming and Support department is to provide families with the tools that they need to improve the quality of life for their child and their family.

Noel McCluney is originally from Florida and earned her undergraduate degree in Exercise Physiology at Florida State University in 2003. She then completed her Doctorate in Physical Therapy (DPT) at A.T Still University in Mesa, AZ in 2006. In 2011 she earned board-certification from the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) and is a Pediatric Certified Specialist (PCS). Most recently she completed a graduate certificate in Assistive Technology from Bowling Green State University in 2016. Additionally, Noel has also been an American Council on Exercise (ACE) certified group fitness instructor since 2000, an ACE Youth Fitness Specialist since 2016, and a certified yoga instructor since 2008.

Noel started working at LIFE when it first opened in 2007. Since 2010, Noel has gained experience working in a variety of pediatric settings in multiple states while her husband pursued his career (biology professor). This includes home therapy in CO and NC, intermediate care facilities in NC and OH, inpatient in OH, and the school setting in NC and OH. Noel worked at LIFE again from 2011-2013, and in the summer of 2017, when she taught a continuing education course on “Assistive Technology for the Pediatric Population.”

Noel believes in a team approach to therapy and always strives to integrate and support other discipline’s goals into client’s PT session. For example, integrating a fine motor goal into an obstacle course or fostering appropriate language to explain rules of a game to a peer. Noel believes that the ability to use a true team approach is what makes LIFE so special, as therapists have frequent opportunities to speak to each other and brainstorm best practices for a client. In other settings, therapists rarely have the opportunity to speak to other members of a client’s team and thus a true team approach is not possible.

As the Director of Clinical Programming, Noel will work to support the team approach by fostering communication between team members, including therapists, teachers, direct care staff, parents, and administrators. She will create programs to expand the opportunities at LIFE and help staff further their education, so they can better help clients and feel more fulfilled in their careers.

Noel is married to Kevin McCluney, an Ecology professor at Bowling Green State University. They have two children, Desmond (6) and Malcolm (3). Noel’s hobbies and interests include yoga, hip hop, American Ninja Warrior, and sci-fi and Jane Austen style books and movies.